The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less

by Richard Koch

The 80/20 Principle, like the truth, can make you free. You can work less. At the same time, you can earn and enjoy more.

Hedonism is in fact a necessary condition for helping others and for achievement. It is very difficult, and always wasteful, to achieve something worthwhile without enjoying it.

80/20 THINKING IS STRATEGIC To be strategic is to concentrate on what is important, on those few objectives that can give us a comparative advantage, on what is important to us rather than others; and to plan and execute the resulting plan with determination and steadfastness.

80/20 Thinking offers you a life raft. Nothing flows from one simple cause. Nothing is inevitable. Nothing is ever in equilibrium or unchangeable.

80/20 THINKING COMBINES EXTREME AMBITION WITH A RELAXED AND CONFIDENT MANNER We have been conditioned to think that high ambition must go with thrusting hyperactivity, long hours, ruthlessness, the sacrifice both of self and others to the cause, and extreme busyness. In short, the rat race.

TWO WAYS TO BE HAPPIER • Identify the times when you are happiest and expand them as much as possible. • Identify the times when you are least happy and reduce them as much as possible.

The freedom to be happy is at last supported by science

MAKING OURSELVES HAPPY BY STRENGTHENING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Daniel Goleman and other writers have contrasted academic intelligence or IQ with emotional intelligence: “abilities such as being able to motivate oneself and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and to keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and to hope.”

Emotional intelligence is more crucial for happiness than intellectual intelligence,

MAKING OURSELVES HAPPIER BY CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT EVENTS We have all experienced the trap of self-reinforced depression, when we think in a gloomy and negative way and simply make things worse, so that we can imagine no way out of the box.

We can train ourselves to break the self-reinforcing pattern of depression by simple steps, such as seeking out company, changing our physical setting, or forcing ourselves to exercise. There are many examples of people exposed to the worst misfortunes, like those in concentration camps or with fatal diseases, who react in a positive way that changes their perspective and strengthens their ability to survive.

My seven daily happiness habits are summarized in Figure 38. 1 Exercise 2 Mental stimulation 3 Spiritual/artistic stimulation/meditation 4 Doing a good turn 5 Taking a pleasure break with a friend 6 Giving yourself a treat 7 Congratulating yourself Figure 38 Seven daily happiness habits One

Another key component of a happy day is mental stimulation. You may obtain this at work but, if not, ensure that there is some intellectual or mental exercise each day. There are a huge number of ways to obtain this, depending on your interests: crossword puzzles, certain newspapers and magazines, reading part of a book, talking for at least 20 minutes to an intelligent friend about an abstract topic, writing a short article or journal entry, in fact, doing anything that requires active thought on your part (watching television, even of the high-brow kind, does not qualify). A third essential daily regime is spiritual or artistic stimulation. This need not be as forbidding as it sounds: all that is required is at least half an hour’s food for the imagination or spirit. Going to a concert, art gallery, theater, or movie all qualify, as do reading a poem, watching the sun rise or set, looking at the stars, or attendance at any event where you are stimulated and excited (this can even include a ball game, race meeting, political rally, church, or park). Meditation also works well. Daily happiness habit number four is doing something for another person or people. This does not have to be a major work of benevolence; it can be a random act of kindness such as paying for someone else’s parking meter or going out of your way to direct someone. Even a brief altruistic act can have a great effect on your spirits.

The fifth habit is to share a pleasurable break with a friend.

Habit number six is to give yourself a treat. To prompt you each day, write down now a list of all the pleasures in which you could indulge yourself (don’t worry, you don’t have to show the list to anyone!).

The final habit, at the end of each day, is to congratulate yourself on having followed your daily happiness habits.

Figure 39 distills seven shortcuts to a happy life. 1 Maximize your control 2 Set attainable goals 3 Be flexible 4 Have a close relationship with your partner 5 Have a few happy friends 6 Have a few close professional alliances 7 Evolve your ideal lifestyle Figure 39 Seven shortcuts to a happy

Happiness is a duty. We should choose to be happy. We should work at happiness. And in doing so, we should help those closest to us, and even those who just stumble across us, to share our happiness.

The conscious mind can only do one thing at a time, which is why you should never text or use a phone and drive. The subconscious can perform trillions of operations simultaneously.

The conscious mind can remember the past and plan for the future, but the subconscious lives only in the eternal present.

the conscious mind is effortful—thinking almost hurts, which is why so many people avoid it—whereas the subconscious mind requires no effort and works away in the background incessantly.

TIP FOR STUDENTS When you go into an exam, read ALL the questions you plan to answer before you start writing your first answer. That way, your subconscious will be plugging away organizing what you should say to all the later questions while your conscious mind answers the first one. When you write the later answers they will flow thick and fast.

THREE CARDINAL USES OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS Creative solutions “Creativity,” Einstein famously said, “is more important than knowledge.” If you want a creative solution to any issue, the subconscious can supply it.

unconscious is a natural explorer…It naturally weighs the importance of various factors as they come into view.

Attaining personal goals People who write down their goals and review them frequently are much more likely to attain them. It is a separate question whether or not you should set goals for yourself.

Goals are great if you really want to make a dent in the cosmos, if you are interested in extraordinary achievement, or if you want to make a lot of money.

we really desire serenity, calmness, composure, tranquillity, and peace of mind, this is the way. Optimistic assertions work!

“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” (Emile Coué) • “Think of yourself as you want to be.” (Harry Carpenter) • “I am becoming the best possible version of myself.” (Matthew Kelly) • “With all my shortcomings, I am a force for good in the world.” • “My quest is for truth and beauty.”

Stage 2: Input to subconscious Here are three effortless ways to send messages to your subconscious: 1 Relax and daydream • Sit in a comfortable chair in a quiet and private spot, preferably outdoors. • Relax. • Put all thoughts (apart from the message you are about to send) out of your head. • Send the message to your subconscious—silently is OK, but say it aloud if you can.

Daydream during “automatic” exercise • Get into a routine form of exercise you are familiar with and can do without thinking about it (ideally something you do very often). • The exercise must be something you can do easily, with no stress or strain, alone. I find cycling or walking at a moderate pace work well. • Before the exercise, read out or think of the message to the subconscious. If you remember, repeat...

Before sleep • Listen to some relaxing or trance-like music for some minutes while in bed. (I listen to the same CD every night—it’s called el-Hadra, the “Mystik Dance,” published by Edition Akasha in Munich. This seems to cue me up for a good sleep and ease in talking to my subconscious.) • In the minute or two before you go to sleep, while you are winding down or drowsy, say the message aloud or in your head. • Look forward ...

Stage 3: Output from subconscious Your subconscious will try to communicate its answer or message to you—you will get it, unless you crowd it out with vigorous activity or a restless mind. To help the subconscious get through to you, relax and da...

networks are different. Their growth comes not from inside the organization (if there is one) which owns or sponsors the network, but from outside. It is the network itself that grows, as a result of actions by the network members themselves—if

second cardinal aspect of a network—a network becomes more valuable as it grows in size. Not only that. The growth in value—to the members, and if there are any to the network owners—is geometric rather than linear.

That’s why network-based ventures such as Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Alibaba, Airbnb, and Uber have become so valuable, so quickly. No non-network-based businesses have ever matched this rate of value explosion.

the World Wide Web is a strange country we visit without leaving our terrestrial locations, a network transforming our work and social lives, as well as the face of business, and a network that has exploded in size and power.

Today the world’s twenty richest cities are magnets for talent with high concentrations of knowledge and money. More than three-quarters of the world’s big companies are based in these twenty cities.

Parag Khanna predicts that “by 2030, more than 70 percent of the world’s people will live in cities, with most of them located within fifty miles of the sea….The

Your route to innovation may be to ditch the old pattern and embrace or create a new one in your industry.

Besides platforms being so much more profitable than pipelines, platforms are also natural monopolies, because of network effects.

Everyone—producers and customers alike—want to be on the largest network.

TransferWise, a peer-to-peer money transfer service developed in Estonia and based in the UK. This is a simple-to-use way to transfer money to someone in a country with a different currency. The peer-to-peer element is somewhat illusory, because all that TransferWise does is aggregate flows of currencies—for example, the pound to the euro and the euro to the pound—in a highly efficient way for people transferring small sums of money. The key to its success is the simplified interface, not the peer-to-peer element, with one exception, which is that the latter drives viral growth.

3: ONLY WORK FOR AN 80/20 BOSS What is an 80/20 boss? Someone who consciously or unconsciously follows the principle. By their works you shall know them: • They focus on very few things—the ones that make a BIG difference to their customers, and, if they still have them, their bosses (hopefully a temporary arrangement—the best 80/20 bosses are not themselves constrained by a boss). • They are going places fast. • They are rarely short of time, and never flustered. They are usually relaxed and happy, not workaholics. • They look to their people for a few valuable outputs. They pay no attention to inputs such as time and sweat. • They take the time to explain to you what they are doing, and why. • They encourage you to focus on what delivers the greatest results with the least effort. • They praise you when you deliver great results, but are constructively critical when you don’t—and suggest that you either stop doing something unimportant or do something important in a more effective way. • When they trust you, they leave you alone and encourage you to come to them when you need guidance.

Joining any cause for truth and beauty

Make no mistake. The 80/20 future requires and rewards individuality. The 80/20 future does not reward hard work, conformity, diplomacy, compromise, and all the other desiderata that good employees have been trained to show. Instead, the 80/20 future rewards the unique innovator.

we all know the joy of working on a project—and the lucky ones of us in a well-paid job—where we would gladly do it for free if we could afford to. We may work very long hours, but it is, as they say, a labor of love. It does not drain our life energy; it feeds it. So time is not the real thing we lack, as we must always remember, despite being told that it is. The thing in short supply for nearly everyone is something completely different—it is joy.

We make the world better when we cultivate our individuality to attain results that are fantastic for our customers and those around us.

The most moving accounts were ones where the principle had focused readers on what was truly important in their lives.

realize how the 80/20 Principle has really been my reason for success…I also want to use your 80/20 philosophy in helping others with learning difficulties focus on the top 20 percent of what they do well…In the not too distant future, I hope to remove the veil that prevents me from showing others the person that I truly am.

Darrel has written a moving article called “Finding power in weakness,” which applies the 80/20 Principle in a novel way. Essentially he says that when our weaknesses are apparent to us, we can rely on our strong suits more potently: partly because we have to, and partly because we realize the gap between our weaknesses and other people’s strengths.